lustrum
Americannoun
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a period of five years.
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Roman History. a lustration or ceremonial purification of the people, performed every five years, after the taking of the census.
noun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of lustrum
First recorded in 1580–90; from Latin lūstrum; cf. luster 1
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
More appropriate seemed the second but obscure meaning of lustrum: a period of five years.
From Time Magazine Archive
Yet his huge mike-and-movie success is less than a lustrum old.
From Time Magazine Archive
On September 15, 1928, Dictator de Rivera will have been in power for one whole lustrum.
From Time Magazine Archive
Spanish scurriers to dictionaries were intrigued and mystified by the primary meaning of lustrum: a Latin word signifying the festival at which Romans purified themselves by sacrificing to the Gods many a pig, sheep, bull.
From Time Magazine Archive
The dictator then both performed the games and vowed them for the following lustrum.
From The History of Rome, Books 27 to 36 by Livius, Titus
He accepted of the tribunitian power for life, but more than once chose a colleague in that office for two lustra 147 successively.
From The Lives of the Twelve Caesars, Complete by Suetonius Tranquillus, Gaius
This led to the computation of time amongst the Romans, by lustra, or periods of five years.
From Domestic Pleasures, or, the Happy Fire-side by Vaux, Frances Bowyer
Thus passed away two lustra of her life, and as yet my daughter remained nameless upon the earth.
From The Works of Edgar Allan Poe — Volume 3 by Poe, Edgar Allan
All the sunny glow of the great Roman's genius seems reflected in this revival of his sentiments, albeit under varying physical conditions, well-nigh three hundred and fifty lustra afterwards.
From Allan Ramsay Famous Scots Series by Smeaton, William Henry Oliphant
Sary passed her hand over the lustra design on the shade and Mrs. Brewster turned to leave the room.
From Polly of Pebbly Pit by Roy, Lillian Elizabeth
In the evolution of the Spanish government the stages will be counted by lustrums.
From Time Magazine Archive
He had been gone three days, and, in their lapse, Theo felt as if three lustrums had passed.
From Theo A Sprightly Love Story by Burnett, Frances Hodgson
The doctor himself had altered in no essential; he was at that period of man's life—between fifty and sixty—when ravaging time seems to give him a respite for a couple of lustrums.
From The Queen of Sheba & My Cousin the Colonel by Aldrich, Thomas Bailey
George III. had been on the throne not less than three lustrums, and most of the important actors of the period of '45, were dead;—many of them, in a degree, forgotten.
From The Two Admirals by Cooper, James Fenimore
It was enough for them, that they were to live asunder two whole years; and two whole years appear like an age to those who have not yet lived their four lustrums.
From The Crater by Cooper, James Fenimore
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
